[Cognitive training in rehabilitation: a program to treat mild cognitive impairment]

As part of a research project, a behavior therapy-oriented cognitive training program, designed to improve the cognitive ability of middle-aged employees (50 to 59 years), was implemented and evaluated. The goal of the training program was to analyze the cognitive, affective and behavior-related conditions of memory deficits in the workplace. The training focused on two topics: (1) development of new job tasks, (2) lack of time and deadline constraints. A total of 316 patients in the psychosomatic clinic of Bad Neustadt participated in the study. Those who showed cognitive impairments took part in the cognitive training program during the intervention phase. During the control phase, patients with cognitive impairments received no additional intervention. The neuropsychological screening was repeated with patients with cognitive impairments at discharge. The findings show that the objective and subjective memory performance of the participants improved significantly compared to that of the control group. At the 1-year follow-up, 84% of the participants reported that they could use the training strategies in their job.